he's playing barack obama in these mock debates we have. i don't like him very much anymore, all right? he keeps on beating me up and i keep going away shaking my head. >> reporter: he flies to colorado on monday night, hun r hunkering down while making final preparations. then he goes to nevada and then goes behind closed doors before debate day. meanwhile both presidential campaigns play the expectations games, trying to lower the bar for their candidates. gary? >> paul, thank you very much. next hour we'll take a closer look at the art of the debate and the strategy of the dodge. we'll show you how dodging important questions can actually earn candidates points with voters. >>> and a programming note, the first presidential debate of 2012 is this wednesday night. watch it live, 7:00 p.m. eastern on cnn and cnn.com. >>> tomorrow morning the u.s. supreme court justices will formally kick off a new term. on the agenda, some of the toughest and most controversial issues of our day. here's joe johns with more. >> reporter: right after the sup